In integrated circuit (IC) structures, a transistor is a critical component for implementing digital circuitry designs. Generally, a transistor includes three electrical terminals: a source, a drain, and a gate. By applying different voltages to the gate terminal, the flow of electric current between the source and the drain can be turned on and off. A common type of transistor is a metal oxide field effect transistor (MOSFET). One example of a MOSFET is a “FinFET,” typically formed upon a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) layer and buried insulator layer. A FinFET can include a semiconductor substrate etched into a “fin” shaped body, with one side of the fin acting as a source terminal and the other side of the fin acting as a drain terminal. A gate structure, which may be at least partially conductive, can be formed around one or more of the semiconductor fins. By applying a voltage to the gate structure, an electrically conductive channel can be created between the source and drain terminals of each fin in contact with the gate.
Over time, improvements to the structure and performance of a transistor, in addition to the ever-decreasing size of these components, have presented significant technical and manufacturing challenges. FinFETs in particular present conflicting demands for high yield processes and high-performance FETs. In some cases, the need to couple one component to another may limit the size of particular structures even when a remainder of the same structure can be reduced in size. As a result, the ability to fully realize spatial improvements to some circuit elements may be limited by competing physical constraints on an IC product.